The legal team of the founder of Tornado Cash Roman Storm is on the rear foot while another key witness decided to plead the fifth. Court journalists claimed that the jury seemed to be “exceeded” to the remaining heavy testimony of the jargon.
While the trial continues, it seems that the biggest victories of the Doj come from the disturbance of the witnesses of Storm. People named by Trump explicitly loosened the rules that Storm would have raped, which could embarrass the prosecution strategy.
Tornado’s cash trial continues
The trial of the founder of Tornado Cash, Roman Storm, entered his third week today, and the defense finally had the chance to take the initiative. However, he was faced with a major setback because a witness from Chainalysis declared his intention to plead the fifth. Apparently, this person changed his melody after a telephone call from prosecutors, which has a significant alarm.
This is particularly worrying because Roman Storm said last month that Doj systematically undermines its witnesses. Last week, the prosecutors suggested filing charges against several people at Dragonfly Capital, whose director openly turned open to blocking the Tornado Cash witnesses. So why would the accusation do this?
Journalist Molly White suggested that this decision represents a key contradiction at the heart of the Tornado arbor. Since President Trump took office, Crypto Enforcement has become much more user-friendly in the United States. The new DEJ general vice-prosecutor, Todd Blanche, wrote a memo in April which apparently pretends the case against Roman Storm:
“Prosecutors should not invoice regulatory violations in cases involving digital assets, including, but without limiting themselves, the transmission of money without license … Unless there was evidence that the defendant was aware of the license or registration requirement and violated such a voluntarily requirement,” wrote Blanche.
The Doj abandoned a large part of its complaint against Storm after this note, considerably complicating the prosecution strategy. Until now, the federal government has put alleged hazard victims on the stand, but it is not certain to know how the species in cash connects to real financial crimes. Beyond movements like that, push Storm’s witnesses to retreat seems to be the key tactics of the accusation.
What will the jury decide?
However, even if it generates a lot of indignation in the cryptographic community, it may not be ineffective. The Tornado Cash team called two witnesses to the position today, including one, the co-founder of Naxo, Matthew Edman, spent much more time to testify.
Several judicial stenographers have documented the reaction of the jury to Edman: his mastery of technical information was “particularly strong”, but the jurors seemed “bored”, “outdated” and “sliding” in reaction to the heavy discussion of the jargon. Apparently, the DoJ has actively worked to ensure that the jury does not contain anyone who understands blockchain technology.
All this to say, the Tornado cash desk could go in both directions now. Even if the community has recognized several incidents concerning, the jury may not notice them. Whatever happens, crypto enthusiasts should follow the procedure because they can determine the privacy law in the future.
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